A BRITISH nanny, serving a 25-year jail sentence in America after being found guilty of shaking a baby to death, has won the right to an appeal hearing.

Tomorrow, Manjit Basuta - who has relatives living in Coventry - will tell a court in San Diego how the judge at her trial in 1999 did not allow a full examination of all the facts following the death of 13-month-old Oliver Smith.

Allegations that the baby's mother had also been seen shaking him, were never put to the jury.

Sixty-five MPs in Britain have already backed a campaign to get Basuta's case reopened.

In Coventry, former Jaguar worker Hardial Singh Brar, who helped raise #500 towards 46-year-old Basuta's legal fees, said he was "very glad" to hear the appeal was finally going ahead.

The 54-year-old, who lives in Grangemouth Road, Radford, said: "Manjit is the sister of my nephew's wife, she has three children of her own and we are all absolutely convinced of her innocence.

"The family mainly live in Slough, where Manjit grew up before emigrating to America and opening a nursery.

"I will be ringing them tonight to get the latest news but am very glad about this appeal."

Mr Brar said members of Basuta's immediate family had remortgaged their homes to help pay for legal advice.

He added that he was aware that there was medical evidence indicating that Oliver had an older head injury, and that the baby's father had complained to police that his mother had a habit of shaking the child.

But the parents were estranged from each other and the judge ruled that much of the father's evidence was inadmissible.